On Wednesday, the Strategic Initiatives Agency received its new top managers. A competition commission headed by Vladimir Putin selected Andrei Nikitin, CEO of the RusKomposit company and Chairman of Business Russia's Committee for Young Business Persons' Affairs, as the agency's Director General.
Nikitin promptly remarked that he planned to eliminate administrative and regulatory barriers to assist business people in presenting projects, which could receive funding from development institutions and sponsors.
Nikitin said the agency also expected to improve the reputation of business leaders in the public eye. "To put it mildly, it is hard to communicate with the public when they consider you a less than decent person, a business person," Nikitin added.
It is difficult to find skilled specialists among university graduates, Nikitin believes, and says this is the third issue besetting the business community. Nikitin says he has had to resort to some cunning ploys to lure talented young people. After sponsoring the Zworykin Project of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, RusKompozit organised a special competition to select future corporate employees.
"I'm confident that you will manage this agency accordingly. I'm confident everything will be fine. We will accomplish everything," Putin said.
Artyom Avetisyan, President of the NEO Centre Consulting Group, has been placed in charge of the New Business department. He will assist young business people and will help them implement their ideas. "It is very important to create so-called 'elevators' for business people themselves within social initiatives and new projects. This implies not just new projects but projects which can be promoted nationwide," Avetisyan said.
Avetisyan said he was very lucky when starting out. He bought a suit from Moscow's Bolshevichka garment factory, a direct dial-in telephone and a good necktie. Then he called the Kommersant Publishing House and offered to evaluate it. Kommersant management agreed to three advertising modules in the Kommersant newspaper. This was how Avetisyan launched his own consulting agency which, he claims, now has an annual turnover of one billion roubles and which employs 400 people.
"Do you mean that these 400 people manage one billion roubles a year?" Putin asked in a surprised voice.
"Yes," Avetisyan replied.
"They provide consulting services day and night. This is crazy," the prime minister said with admiration. He promptly added that there will be many such platforms for promoting new initiatives.
"We are trying to establish an entire chain of agencies for advancing and accomplishing objectives of interest to the country and for specific activities," he said. Dmitry Peskov, Director General of the Metaver Projects Group, has been instructed to head the Young Professionals department. He will start training new specialists for the business community.
"The Strategic Initiatives Agency is in charge with teaching the business community how to talk to the education system in the same language. This is because professional standards are a foundation worldwide. But these standards are formulated by the business community relying on its professional associations," Peskov said.
Peskov believes the creation of a long-term loyalty mechanism linking the professional development of young specialists with various bonuses is another agency task. In his opinion, this will motivate young people to stay in Russia. "When children start growing up, you begin to think what country they will live in, and you realise that you have to take your chances and assume responsibility at some point," Peskov complained to the prime minister. "I had to make an extremely difficult choice because it is a matter of principle for us not to work with the state. We are not involved in any state tenders, and we receive absolutely no budgetary funding," he added. Peskov said his company lacked offices and even an in-house hierarchy. This is the foundation of its success.
"Just imagine, all this has been done under these conditions! Who could have created such conditions? Including the government!" Putin said, supporting Peskov's positive attitude.
"Certainly. Yes, sometimes we score very good results, while overcoming obstacles," Peskov agreed and promised to establish a national school that would train people to understand global trends, technologies and risks.
Vladimir Yablonsky, Director of Information and Analysis at the Moscow Municipal Government's Department of Education, will oversee the Social Projects department.
Alexandra Bayazitova